Cardinal (Catholic Church)

The most solemn responsibility of the cardinals is to elect a new pope in a conclave, almost always from among themselves (with a few historical exceptions), when the Holy See is vacant.

During the period between a pope's death or resignation and the election of his successor, the day-to-day governance of the Holy See is in the hands of the College of Cardinals.

The right to participate in a conclave is limited to cardinals who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs.

Cardinals of working age are also appointed to roles overseeing dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church.

A very small number are priests recognised by the pope for their service to the Church; as canon law requires them to be generally consecrated as bishops before they are made cardinals,[2] but some are granted a papal dispensation.

In Rome the first persons to be called cardinals were the deacons of the seven regions of the city at the beginning of the 6th century, when the word began to mean "principal", "eminent", or "superior".

This meaning of the word spread rapidly, and from the 9th century various episcopal cities had a special class among the clergy known as cardinals.

[5] In the year 1563, the Ecumenical Council of Trent, headed by Pope Pius IV, wrote about the importance of selecting good cardinals: "nothing is more necessary to the Church of God than that the holy Roman pontiff apply that solicitude which by the duty of his office he owes the universal Church in a very special way by associating with himself as cardinals the most select persons only, and appoint to each church most eminently upright and competent shepherds; and this the more so, because our Lord Jesus Christ will require at his hands the blood of the sheep of Christ that perish through the evil government of shepherds who are negligent and forgetful of their office.

Traditions even developed entitling certain monarchs, including those of Austria, Spain, and France, to nominate one of their trusted clerical subjects to be created cardinal, a so-called "crown-cardinal".

Guillaume Dubois and André-Hercule de Fleury complete the list of the four great cardinals to have ruled France.

[10] In 1059, Pope Nicholas II gave cardinals the right to elect the Bishop of Rome in the papal bull In nomine Domini.

[14] In October 1975 in Romano Pontifici eligendo, he set the maximum number of electors at 120, while establishing no limit on the overall size of the college.

[23] Nevertheless, cardinals possess no power of governance nor are they to intervene in any way in matters which pertain to the administration of goods, discipline, or the service of their titular churches.

The "door" is the address of the titular church from which the cardinal derives his membership of the Roman clergy, who elect the pope.

[32] Oriental patriarchs who are created cardinals customarily use "Sanctae Ecclesiae Cardinalis" as their full title,[33] probably because they do not belong to the Roman clergy.

It has been rejected by Pope Francis, who stated to a group of newly created cardinals "He (Jesus) does not call you to become 'princes' of the Church, to 'sit on his right or on his left.'

For most of the second millennium there were six cardinal bishops, each presiding over one of the seven suburbicarian sees around Rome: Ostia, Albano, Porto and Santa Rufina, Palestrina, Sabina and Mentana, Frascati, and Velletri.

[51] Those who are named cardinal priests today are generally also bishops of important dioceses throughout the world, though some hold Curial positions.

In 1587, Pope Sixtus V sought to arrest this growth by fixing the maximum size of the college at 70, including 50 cardinal priests, about twice the historical number.

This limit was respected until 1958, and the list of titular churches modified only on rare occasions, generally when a building fell into disrepair.

If he is a cardinal elector and participates in a conclave, he announces a new pope's election and name[i] from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

He is to collate information about the financial situation of all administrations dependent on the Holy See and present the results to the College of Cardinals, as they gather for the papal conclave.

[j] These were all appointed cardinal-deacons, but Roberto Tucci and Albert Vanhoye lived long enough to exercise the right of option and be promoted to the rank of cardinal-priest.

With the revision of the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, only those who are already priests or bishops may be appointed cardinals.

[60] Since the time of Pope John XXIII a priest who is appointed a cardinal must be consecrated a bishop, unless he obtains a dispensation.

Beginning with the reign of Pope Martin V,[5] cardinals were created without publishing their names until later, a practice termed creati et reservati in pectore.

Occasionally, a cardinal wears a scarlet ferraiolo which is a cape worn over the shoulders, tied at the neck in a bow by narrow strips of cloth in the front, without any 'trim' or piping on it.

[67] In previous times, at the consistory at which the pope named a new cardinal, he would bestow upon him a distinctive wide-brimmed hat called a galero.

Before the new uniformity imposed by John Paul II, each cardinal was given a ring, the central piece of which was a gem, usually a sapphire, with the pope's stemma engraved on the inside.

Without such delegation, no ecclesiastical court, even the Roman Rota, is competent to judge a canon law case against a cardinal.